In a bucket conveyor, a plurality of buckets (or accommodating sections) on which objects to be conveyed are placed are disposed at regular intervals, and a conveyor belt is made to travel, whereby the objects are conveyed together with the buckets. In a case where objects to be conveyed are manually placed on the accommodating sections in such a conveyor, in general, the operator can place the objects on the accommodating sections more easily when the accommodating sections are continuously moved at a constant speed than when the accommodating sections are intermittently moved or are moved with the conveying speed varied. In a case where the accommodating sections are intermittently moved or are moved with the conveying speed varied, it is difficult to judge the timing for placing the objects, and the operator may fail to place the objects on appropriate accommodating sections or may contact with the accommodating sections by mistake.
Thus, in a case of manually disposing objects on the accommodating sections, it is preferable to continuously move the accommodating sections at a constant speed. On the other hand, however, in a packing device for accommodating objects to be conveyed in packaging bags, it may be necessary to intermittently stop the objects to be conveyed. In that situation, it is necessary to transfer the objects from a conveying device of a continuous conveying system for continuously moving the objects to a conveying device of an intermittent conveying system for intermittently moving the objects.
As a device for transferring objects to be conveyed between devices of different conveying systems, there has been known a relay device disclosed in Japanese patent application publication No. 10-310230. The relay device of Japanese patent application publication No. 10-310230 comprises an endless relay bucket conveyor, wherein articles received from an intermittent conveying conveyor are conveyed in the state of being accommodated in buckets and the articles are transferred from the buckets to a continuous conveying conveyor.